


Hanging Around

by Chelonie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Aurors, Chickenpets, Corrupt Cops, Corruption, Don't copy to another site, Drawing conclusions from insufficient evidence, Fanwork of Fanwork, If you haven't read Pacify you're missing out, M/M, Ministry of Magic (Harry Potter), Pacifyverse, Snarry (background), radicalisation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:02:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25376605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chelonie/pseuds/Chelonie
Summary: Harry goes into the Ministry to get Draco back in Pacify part 5 chapter 11.This is one Auror's story.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Severus Snape
Comments: 8
Kudos: 53
Collections: Pacify Fan-Works: Fanfics for a Fanfic





	Hanging Around

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Pacify Part 5: Safety](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24507556) by [Chickenpets](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chickenpets/pseuds/Chickenpets). 



_Harry snarled, and flicked his fingers upwards, disarming every single Auror at once and sending their wands straight into the ceiling like a volley of darts. Then he turned his palms down and sank everyone but Grant into the floor to the waist._

Auror Constable Mercy Spalding had a lot of time to think while she hung half-buried in the floor between the door to the break room and that wall of light, her wand sticking out of the plaster ceiling. 

_“So, Freida, Imperius Curse?”_ the mad little terrorist asked.

Of course they all said _now_ it was the Imperius Curse. But no, it wasn’t, not on every Ministry employee. Mostly just the ones in charge. There were other methods to compel obedience from the rest. Like that arsehole Simon Smith, someone she thought was a kind elderly man in Geneology and Records, who helped Mercy get papers for her muggleborn boyfriend, then told her that he’d keep her secret so long as she did her job in the Aurory as ordered. 

It made her sick. Then angry. She didn’t know if Smith was under Imperius or a Death Eater sympathiser. She should have guessed, with a name like Smith, from _those_ Smiths. She should have guessed that the purebloods would stick together.

The first time Mercy arrested someone for stealing magic, it felt worse than her first rotation in Azkaban. 

The first time she snapped someone’s wand after they’d been dragged in by Snatchers, she wanted to throw up.

She begged Ben to flee Britain, but Ben’s mum was in hospice, dying of cancer, and he wouldn’t leave. As long as Ben was her hostage, Mercy did as she was told.

It got a little easier each time. They'd probably committed some crime. They wouldn’t run if they weren’t guilty. They should've keep their heads down. Dementors wouldn’t hurt them if they weren’t bad people.

She remembered the first time she called Ben “Mudblood.”

She remembered the time she cursed Ben. Not _Crucio,_ but one of the lesser torture curses. 

It still made him scream. She was inured to screams by now, but the muggle neighbours weren’t, and they called the police. 

“I’ll fucking oblivate them all. Stupid animals,” Mercy had growled.

“No! Mercy, just… go. I’ll deal with them,” Ben said. As she disapparated, she heard him say, “Don’t come back.” Maybe he thought she wouldn’t hear those words, but she had. 

Mercy had been so so close to giving him up to the Muggleborn Registration Committee. _That’ll teach the fucking Mudblood to talk back to his betters!_

Something - a moment of sanity - a moment of shame - had kept her from doing that. 

She remembered hearing that Undesirable Number One was at Hogwarts, and she and her colleagues all spoke fervently about their wish that the terrorist be apprehended. She didn’t go. Why would she go? She was on guard duty that night. She listened to the Wireless, for what scraps of news made it out -- mostly You-Know-Who’s proclamations.

Then, You-Know-Who was dead, but she still had a job to do, didn't she? It was so _easy_ to pivot from Mudbloods to Death Eaters. 

_He’s so young. How can the terrorist we chased all year be so young?_

_How can someone so young be so bloody powerful?_

She thought of the front page of the Prophet. It was ridiculous to believe that Severus Snape and Harry Potter were lovers. How could they be, when Potter had been terrorising the country for the past year, and Snape had been safely ensconced at Hogwarts? But Aurors were trained in observation, and she could see the way Snape watched the mad little terrorist - as if he wanted to undress him and take him right there in the corridor. 

Potter’s feelings for Snape were less clear - he was too focused on the Malfoy’s to give her any read. Which meant that the boy was unlikely to have been potioned. Most love potions left the victim unable to focus on anyone but their artificial love interest. 

If Harry Potter was in love with anyone, it was clearly Draco Malfoy.

So, an unrequited love on Snape’s part.

Perhaps Snape switched sides for love of this boy terrorist.

Or… her brain working fast and making connections -- Snape was always attracted to power. You-Know-Who. Albus Dumbledore. And now this powerful boy. This child who stole their wands and left smoking footprints behind him.

Of _course_ Snape would kill to try to earn his favour. How else would a man like him court a boy like that? A powerful, wild, boy terrorist with an assassin like Severus Snape at his side.

He couldn’t become anything but the next Dark Lord.

**Author's Note:**

> Auror Trainee Sabine Jones: "Hey! I have a deck of cards in my pocket!"  
> Auror Superintendent Bertram Wagg: "If you don't deal me in, you can forget passing your next assessment, Trainee!"


End file.
